Compost Diving

For episode 106 “Composting,” Joe and the crew were on location in Seattle for the grand, behind the scenes tour of Cedar Grove Composting, the largest composting facility of it’s kind in the world. The family owned business is now home to 250 employees who convert mountains of grass, leaves, trimmings, yard waste, food waste, and wood waste into nutrient-rich finished compost made available to the public in a variety of ways. They have perfected the magical process of transforming matter that would simply clog landfills, straining the environment and turning it instead into gardeners’ best friend.

Throughout the day while filming, Joe Lamp’l, host and producer of new public television show Growing a Greener World continued to make jokes about jumping into the compost and swimming around. The very last scene of the day took place right next to a massive mountain of the finished compost product, small cut for home use, and an outlet right overhead adding to the pile. Joe was finishing the story with his guide, Susan Thoman and Director of Photography Carl Pennington called cut and wrap.

As legend has it, the only warning Joe gave anyone was a quick nod to Carl, and “Are you rolling?” and off he went. Above is the uncut version of Joe’s Compost Dive. Enjoy.

Growing A Greener World is a national gardening series on Public Television that features organic gardening, green living and farm to table cooking. Each episode focuses on compelling and inspirational people making a difference through gardening. This gardening series covers everything from edible gardening and sustainable agriculture to seasonal cooking and preserving the harvest.